What do you do when you’re FED UP with using coupons?!

Reader Kim left the following comment on our Weekly Shopping Trip post and I just loved her honesty. I know we’ve all been where she is at one time or another. I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity for us to encourage each other on this journey. Couponing for many is a way of life, but we all need to take a break from time to time.

Thanks for all the time and effort you and Mr. Frugal put into this site each day! I followed your advice, and developed a nice stockpile, ect. for a good 6 months……but I feel I just can’t continue. I would find myself SO focused on chasing the deals that I wouldn’t be giving as much attention to people and areas of my life that I cared about FAR more than if I was able to get a couple of boxes of trashbags for free. Don’t get me wrong, I know there are families who are being blessed a TON by couponing, ect. However, in my opionion, just because money is being saved doesn’t mean that it isn’t costing valuable resources in other areas of my life. Am I the only couponer who feels “controlled” by the need to “get the deal” at all costs?

That’s the BEAUTY of a stockpile. Trust me I take breaks from couponing, sometimes long breaks. That’s WHY I coupon. I know life is hectic and sometimes you flat get burnt out, that’s what your stockpile is for. Take a break, enjoy your family and dive back in when things mellow out.

On another note, something you might consider. I take each of my 4 children with me on a rotating basis when I go grocery shopping. We grab a hot chocolate before hand ($5 goes into our “kid’s date envelope” each week) and we turn the everyday errand into a special time with mommy. This is a wonderful way to bond and educate your children on budgeting and finances.

Comments

Sometimes I feel I get “out of sync” with couponing. It’s like, I’m finding all these great coupons, keeping track of them, and using them in the most advantageous way possible for months and months and then suddenly BAM! I can’t keep track, I can’t find the good coupons (or they’re all on the internet and ink isn’t in the budget), and the great ones I have seem to magically expire in my binder. I definitely have a love/hate relationship with couponing, Lol!

It’s like you said exactly what was in my head. I hate going to buy something and I see that the coupons expired yesterday. Then I get mad that I didn’t go shopping yesterday. Or I buy something with my double coupons and then I see next weeks ad and I see that I bought something that was even cheaper and I could have used my double coupons on something else. Or feel I wasted so much time cutting coupons to find out the store had ran out of the item I was going to buy. Then I feel burnt out and stop cutting coupons for a couple weeks.

I take a break for a few weeks maybe 6. Usually then I am shock over prices and ready to continue. It seems to happen around Christmas, whick works well…..have to much other and more important stuff to focus on!

I agree with your post, a stockpile is extremely helpful. It has allowed me to spend more time with my family. Plus if the deals aren’t good or I just don’t feel like going out I don’t have too! I had 3 weeks in January that I didn’t go out at all! The hubby just stopped at the store for bread & milk. My stockpile is a great investment! Now I am able to pay off our debt more frequently!

The way I stay sane with all of this is to just focus on the items and products I know we’re going to use. Oh, and good use of time management. Throughout the week I will read this blog and if there’s a hot coupon, I’ll print it. A few times a week I’ll also click through coupons.com and target.com and print any coupons I see that are for products I know we use. Then I let the printed coupons pile up on my printer tray until Sunday. On Sunday morning with a cup of coffee in hand, I go through the newspaper inserts and clip out what I want plus I clip the coupons I printed during the week. I add the new coupons to my binder and I get rid of whatever expired during the last week.

I usually make 3 shopping lists for the week…Safeway, Target, and CVS. The Target & CVS ones I use the matchups on this site and again, I just get stuff that I know we use. Safeway does the online Just 4 U program so I login to their site and add everything to my card when creating my shopping list.

All in all, I think I spend between 5 and 10 hours a week on couponing, depending how good the deals are and what else I have going on at the time. Is that time I could be spending doing other things? Sure. But I enjoy couponing. And I enjoy the money it saves me. And just like everything else in life, as long as you keep it in perspective and remember why you are doing it, then the time investment seems worthwhile.

safeway makes couponing extremly difficult and always makes me want to quit. I have been out of ink for a while so i have been only able to use the coupons from the sunday paper and i usually cant find any i like or can use

I totally agree. I’ve been so caught up with couponing that other things in life were put to the side. Now I only coupon on things I can use, or donate. And really only coupon for groceries to keep food costs down. Though this week Walgreens pulled me back in!

I definitely went crazy with couponing and I have not really used coupons since November. Instead I’m clearance shopping a lot,(target for my toddler, today kohls for me) and online purchase. The reason probably is that I have enough stockpile for awhile. Also I started strict diet so I do more of fresh/organic food shopping. Now I do pretty much no drug store shopping, use more of store coupons for grocery markets. I love $5 Fridays at Safeway, clearance shoes and clothes from target, and cheaper organic food at trader joes. Which is all without coupons

I am not beating myself up over coupons anymore. I try my best to use them whenever I can and I’m always more motivated to use them on higher price items or toward the end of the month when we always run low on money. Instead of always lamenting the deal I missed, I try to focus on what I saved. I can only manage 1-2 grocery and 1-2 drugstore trips per week. I just pick the stores with the best sales for that week and coupon match where I can.

I just started getting back in to the swing of things with couponing after taking a break for several months. We had a lot going on in a whole lot of areas and it was just too much to chase all of the deals. I have a pretty decent stockpile which was awesome to be able to fall back on while I was on a break. I initially was picking up the couponing pace again because we had finally run low on TP and shampoo/conditioner, but I have actually been having fun with it again which was a pleasant surprise.

Do what you can when you can and don’t let it make you miserable. Life is too short for that!

Hello from beautiful Boulder, Colorado! I believe life is made up of all the little things that make you smile. Only sometimes they aren't so little. Whether it's scrumptious recipes, cute crafts, or helpful life hacks, I want to share with you what fills my days with brightness.